(Minghui.org) Mr. Zhang Xinzi, also known as Mr. Zhang Xiai, from Xishui County in Hubei Province, was arrested in Yangci, Wanggang Town in the early morning of August 3, 2010, by the head of Xishui County Politics and Legal Affairs Committee and three agents from the Xishui 610 Office. He was then subjected to one year of forced labor.

One year later, after the local Procuratorate charged Mr. Zhang, officials from the local court sentenced him to seven years in prison on June 29, 2011. He is now being held in the fifth ward of Shayang Prison in Hubei.

While incarcerated in Xishui Detention Center, Mr. Zhang's family learned that his vision had severely deteriorated. They questioned how the guards in the detention center had treated him, because Mr. Zhang had been driving for many years and had excellent vision.

Mr. Zhang called his wife from prison in the evening on March 11, 2013, and told her that he had a lost most of his vision as a result of being severely beaten during an interrogation at Xishui Detention Center.

Mr. Zhang's mother is 95 years old and was completely dependent on her only son. She found it very difficult to cope when he was first subjected to forced labor in 2003. When she heard of her son's latest sentence, she was devastated and also become blind from angst. Mr. Zhang's whole family depends on him, as his wife is in poor health, and his two children are not yet on their own.